


Critical Failure

by localspacelesbian



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Food Poisoning, Sickfic, andi mack appreciation week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 06:30:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21405715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/localspacelesbian/pseuds/localspacelesbian
Summary: Buffy and Marty can't decide where to go for their date. Cyrus makes a suggestion that he immediately regrets.
Relationships: Buffy Driscoll/Marty, T.J. Kippen/Cyrus Goodman - background
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	Critical Failure

Buffy and Marty had been arguing basically since they got out of their fourth period class. They were now sitting at their regular lunch table waiting for their friends, but their food remained untouched. It wasn’t a particularly serious argument, but it had long-surpassed their usual playful bantering. They barely even noticed TJ and Cyrus walk up to their table.

Cyrus set his tray down with just a bit more force than was entirely necessary. “What’s up, guys?” he asked with a fake smile and a pointed look on his face as he sat down.

Buffy sighed but shot Cyrus an apologetic look. “We’re trying to decide where to go for our date tonight.”

Cyrus raised his eyebrow. “Ok… What are your options?”

Buffy sighed. “See. that’s the thing. There are too many options. We know we want to go out to eat, but we can’t decide where. There isn’t really anywhere that either of us don’t like. How do you two decide where to eat when you go out?” Despite knowing how indecisive both of them (especially Cyrus) were, she had never seen them have this same argument.

They both looked at each other, and then Cyrus pulled out his phone. He seemed to be looking for something, and when he found it, he slid his phone across the table to show them. It was a list of restaurants in Shadyside, each labeled 1-20. She noticed that the Spoon seemed to be there multiple times. She gave him a confused look. “We roll a die,” Cyrus explained.

“And that works?” She asked, still a bit skeptical.

They both shrugged. “Yeah, pretty much,” TJ answered.

Marty shook his head. “But these are all good restaurants. The numbers don’t mean anything. If a crit fail isn’t significantly worse than a nat 20, what’s the point?” Buffy had to admit that Marty had a point.

Cyrus shook his head. “It’s just a way of making a decision. Why would you want to go somewhere bad on a date?”

“It’s the principal of the thing,” Marty argued.

“Then make your own list,” TJ said, shrugging, as Cyrus took his phone back.

Buffy and Marty shared a look and nodded. “Ok,” Buffy said.

TJ and Cyrus just shared their own amused look and started eating while Buffy and Marty both pulled out their own phones and started making their own list of restaurants. Once they were satisfied, they showed it to TJ and Cyrus.

Cyrus read the first name on the list and gave them a look of disbelief. “Didn’t you say your moms got food poisoning at that place last month?”

Marty nodded. “Like a said, what’s the point if a crit fail doesn’t come with consequences?”

They both shook their heads. “You guys are dumb,” TJ said as they continued reading the list. When they read the last one, they looked up again. “Can you even afford that place?”

Buffy took her phone back. “If we manage to roll a 20, we deserve to treat ourselves, right Marty?”

Marty nodded. “Do either of you have a D20?”

Cyrus pulled one out of his pocket, because of course he had one, and handed it to them, with a look on his face that said he was already regretting this entire conversation.

“Thank you.” Marty took the die with a huge smile on his face and tossed it on the table. As it rolled, it felt like they were watching it in slow motion. Buffy felt a sense of dread fall over her as it stopped. She saw Marty’s smile fall. TJ was barely stopping himself from laughing. It was a one. A critical failure. A not-insignificant chance of them both getting food poisoning. She felt herself go through all five stages of grief before she and Marty looked back up at each other with matching looks of determination. They were really going to go through with this.

She saw a look of fear cross Cyrus’s face as he seemed to read her mind. “You guys don’t actually have to do this; you know that, right?”

She and Marty both nodded to each other and turned back to their friends. “No, we do. This is what we deserve for our hubris,” Marty said, putting his hand over his heart dramatically.

Cyrus just shook his head, knowing that arguing with them was pointless. The bell rang, and he took back his die as all of them got up to go to their next class.

Buffy was just finishing her makeup when she got a text from Marty that he was here. She grabbed her purse and phone and went outside, saying goodbye to her parents as she left. When she stepped outside, she saw Marty leaning against his mom’s pickup, which was parked in the street in front of her house. She almost laughed at how edgy he was trying way to hard to be in a leather jacket that she knew was his mom’s, with his arms crossed but with a dumb goofy grin on his face.

He handed her a rose. “Ready to go to Blue Lobster?”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head as she accepted the rose. “Nope. Let’s go.”

He opened the passenger side door for her, and she got in. He walked over to the other side of the pickup and got in too, before starting the vehicle.

The pickup stopped much sooner than Buffy was expecting. She hadn’t realized how close the restaurant was to her house,]; it was definitely within walking distance. She looked at him with her eyebrow raised. “You just wanted to show off that you got your driver’s license, didn’t you?”

He blushed and didn’t look at her. “Maybe.”

She rolled her eyes as they got out of the vehicle. “You’re ridiculous.” He had just gotten his license a week ago, and he wouldn’t shut up about how he had managed to pass the test on the first try.

They met behind the car and reached for each other’s hands. “You’re just jealous you don’t have yours yet,” he teased.

“Shut up. You’re only like a month older than me, Martin.”

He just stuck his tongue out at her as he held open the door to the restaurant for her.

Once they were sitting down at a table, it fully hit them that they were actually doing this, and they just started laughing. When the waiter came by to ask them what they wanted to drink, he gave them a judgmental look, and they had to pull themselves together enough to answer his question. When he left, they started to look at the menus, which just set them off again. Buffy wasn’t sure how long they were laughing before they finally stopped.

They both looked through the menu, trying to find the least risky things, but also not wanting to be one-upped by the other in terms of who was willing to take a bigger risk. Buffy decided to let Marty order first. He got fish and chips, and she got shrimp pasta.

Once the two of them got to talking, it was almost like any other date, except that the whole place smelled like seafood, and they both had this anxiety in the back of their minds that they were going to get sick that they both refused to mention. When their food arrived, they both hesitantly started eating. It… wasn’t terrible. Not quite as bad as they were expecting anyway. It ended up being a pretty good date overall. Not that it was really possible for the two of them to have a bad date. They finished most of their food and decided not to bother saving any leftovers or staying for dessert, choosing instead to stop for ice cream on their way home and eat it in the pickup.

The next day, Marty woke up to his phone ringing. He groaned and reached over to grab it. It was Buffy. He answered it without a second thought. “Buffy?” he asked, still half asleep.

“Marty?” She sounded miserable.

He was suddenly awake and full of concern. “Are you ok?”

“Well, I just threw up, so…” She laughed but there was no humor behind it. “I just wanted to see if you were sick too.”

He thought for a second. “No, I feel fine.”

“That’s not fair,” she whined.

He laughed. “Do you want me to come over?”

He could practically feel her shaking her head. “No, I’m fine. My mom’s here. I just wanted to check on you.”

He shook his head, even though he knew she couldn’t see him. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” He got up and started getting dressed while still on the phone with her.

“Marty…”

“I gave you food poisoning. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t at least come over and see you?”

She sighed. “Fine. But you can’t tell TJ and Cyrus about this.”

“Oh, of course not. We’re taking this to our graves.”

She laughed. “That might be sooner than you think.”

He laughed. “Nope. You’re not allowed to die.”

“Ever?”

“Ever.”

She sighed. “Fine. I guess I’ll live. For you.”

“Thank you.” He was already heading out the door.

He stayed on the phone with her until he got to her house, where he walked right in without knocking. He found her in the upstairs bathroom sitting on the floor next to the toilet with her mom sitting next to her with her arm around her.

Pat looked at Buffy. “I’m gonna go get you some water, ok?” Buffy nodded. Pat kissed the top of her head and got up. The look she gave Marty as she left the room made his life flash before his eyes and forced him to confront the very real possibility that Pat Driscoll had killed people before.

He swallowed and nodded at her before going to take her spot next to Buffy. “Well, your mom hates me now.”

Buffy didn’t have the energy to roll her eyes, but she somehow managed to convey the same feeling to him anyway. “She doesn’t hate you.”

He nodded. “Yes, she does.”

“Why would my mom hate you?”

“Gee, I don’t know. Maybe because I gave her daughter food poisoning?”

“Hey, that’s not your fault. I make my own choices.”

“Somehow, I don’t think she sees it that way.”

She shook her head and leaned into him more. “We’re so stupid.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Yep. But at least we’re stupid together.” She laughed and the two of them sat like that until Pat came back with a glass of water. She handed it to Marty, though she gave him a look that very clearly said that she didn’t trust him. Buffy looked up at her and the two of them seemed to have some kind of silent conversation until Pat left again.

Buffy took a small sip of water and sat back against him. They sat like that in silence for about a minute before she suddenly sat up and puked into the toilet again. He held back her hair and rubbed her back until she was done. She sat back and groaned. “I’m never eating again.”

There wasn’t really anything he could say to make her feel better, so he just sat there with her and did his best to comfort her. She puked a couple more times, but after about an hour, she was able to drink the whole glass of water and actually keep it down this time, and she was starting to get restless, so they decided to get up. He stood and helped her up. She brushed her teeth, and then he helped her walk downstairs to the living room. They turned on a movie and curled up on the couch together under several blankets. Buffy was asleep within minutes, her head in Marty’s lap as he ran his hands through her hair.

Buffy walked into the cafeteria on Monday and immediately smelled fish. Because of course they would be serving fish today. Marty put his arm around her and gave her a sympathetic look. She pouted at him. He smiled and walked off to the food line as she walked over to their table, which was thankfully far enough away that the smell wasn’t quite as bad. She rested her head in her arms.

She looked up when she heard two trays being set down on the table in front of her. TJ and Cyrus sat down across from her. “You ok?” Cyrus asked.

She smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired.” Cyrus clearly didn’t believe her, but he didn’t say anything.

Marty came over and put his tray on the table as he sat down. She saw the two chicken sandwiches and the mountain of fries on his tray. She gave him a smile that was much more real than the smile she had given Cyrus as she took a fry and popped it into her mouth.

The smile slowly fell from her face as the smell of fish got stronger. Jonah sat down right next to her with his own lunch tray, on top of which sat a fish sandwich. Buffy wrinkled her nose. “Ugh. Why’d you have to get the fish?” She got up and moved to the other side of Marty, which only helped slightly.

TJ and Cyrus exchanged a knowing look, which she chose to ignore. Jonah just looked confused. “They were out of chicken.” He shrugged. “What’s the big deal?”

She was about to say something she’d probably regret when TJ interrupted her. “So, how was your date this weekend?” he asked, with a smug look on his face.

She plastered a fake smile on her face. “It was great.” Marty nodded in agreement. Jonah looked even more confused.

“How was the food?” Cyrus asked.

“It was alright,” Marty answered, shrugging and taking a bite of his sandwich.

TJ and Cyrus shared another look before turning to Buffy. “You got food poisoning, didn’t you?” Cyrus asked.

Buffy sighed and put her face in her hands. “Fine. You were right. I spent all day Saturday puking my guts out. Is that what you wanted to hear?” She looked up at them, somewhat pleased to see that Cyrus at least looked slightly guilty. TJ still looked smug, but there was also a hint of pity in his face that almost made her more mad. She turned to Jonah. “And if I have to smell that damn sandwich for a second longer-” Marty put his hand on hers to stop her before she could finish the threat, which was probably for the best because she wasn’t really sure where she had been going with it. She pulled his tray closer to her and sat back in defeat as she started eating.

“Should I leave?” Jonah looked kind of scared, and Buffy almost felt bad. Almost.

Marty shook his head. “No, you’re fine.” That seemed to only slightly reassure Jonah.

Buffy sighed. “You’re fine. I’m mostly just mad at myself.” She turned to TJ. “And I swear to god, if you say ‘I told you so-’”

TJ held up his hands in surrender. “I wasn’t going to.”

“Well, we did tell you so…”

Buffy turned to glare at Cyrus. Marty put his arm around her, and she melted into his side. Sometimes, she hated how soft Marty made her. Cyrus and TJ gave her matching smirks. She just stuck her tongue out at them before continuing to eat her food. Fortunately, Cyrus got the message and changed the topic, and he, TJ, and Jonah started talking about something else. 

Buffy immediately tuned them out. She turned to Marty. “I love you,” she said softly.

He smiled at her. “I love you, too.”


End file.
